282 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 
Transition : The main agricultural portion of the state 
Upper austral: Hudson valley, the western part of Long Island, and 
the lake region. 
While this is in general the distribution of the life zones in New York 
the details are very imperfectly known. A study of these details would 
be the first and most important step in a survey of the kind to which this 
paper is intended as a preliminary. The economic importance of such 
a survey in its bearing on the selection of crops for certain areas and 
the avoidance of crop parasites is very great. (See Howard ’95, Merriam 
798, and Plumb ’98.) 
Throughout this paper the geographic distribution of species will be 
stated so far as possible in terms of life zones. The salient features of 
the different zones however may first be considered in some detail. 
Hudsonian zone. The area occupied by the Hudsonian zone in 
New York is too limited to support a characteristic mammalian fauna. 
Microtus chrotorrhinus, a typical Hudsonian mammal, probably occurs 
throughout the Adirondack region in favorable localities (see p. 322) in 
the area covered by the Canadian zone. It has also been found in the 
Catskills associated with Syzaptomys fatuus, another Hudsonian species. 
At least one Hudsonian bird (Aylocichla aliciac bicknelli) breeds in the 
Catskills, while several such as Farus hudsonicus, Spinus pinus and 
FPicoides americanus are found in the Adirondacks. 
Among the flowering plants a number of characteristic Hudsonian 
forms occur on the summits of the higher Adirondacks. Peck (’80) enu- 
merates the following species from the summit of Mt Marcy: 
Solidago alpestris Alpine golden-rod! 
Nabalus nanus low rattlesnake-root 
Vaccinium caespitosum dwarf bilberry 
Vaccinium uliginosum great bilberry 
Rhododendron lapponicum _ Lapland rose bay 
Arenaria groenlandica mountain sandwort 
Diapensia lapponica diapensia 
Limpetrum nigrum black crowberry 
Salix uva-ursi bearberry willow 
Juncus trifidus highland rush 
Scirpus caespitosus tufted club-rush 
Carex bigelovit Bigelow’s sedge 
Loa laxa wavy meadow-grass 
Savastana alpina Alpine holy grass. 
1 The English names for plants are those,adopted by Britton and Brown (796, ’97 and 98). 
